Rousas John Rushdoony Quotes

And that whole do-able/undo-able thing? Yeah. Need I point out that neither Ruth nor I have ever "done" anybody in our lives?

Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

It is difficult for me to regard anyone who obeys no moral principle in his conduct to be a religious man.

Without Virtue there can be no liberty

Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom.

True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

I think a lot of people in America do not understand that the basis of true liberty can't happen without an objective moral standard by which we live our lives.

You don't become a saint until you lead a good life whether in Tibet or Italy or America.

I should not deal with things that aren't founded on ethical principles, because that's not who I am as a human being.

Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping.

Our probity is not less at the mercy of fortune than our property.

Character is a quality that embodies many important traits, such as integrity, courage, perseverance, confidence and wisdom. Unlike your fingerprints that you are born with and can't change, character is something that you create within yourself and must take responsibility for changing

Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.

... men of highest genius have been too frequently of extremely shaky morals.

Ye must leave righteous ways behind, not to speak of unrighteous ways.

Liberty is equally desirable to the good and to the bad, to the brave and to the dastardly.

If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind, generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.

What is the real relation between happiness and goodness? It is only within a few generations that men have found courage to say that there is none.

There will be no true freedom without virtue, no true science without religion, no true industry without the fear of God and love to your fellow citizens.

Tis certain that Morality is an indispensable Requisite of true Religion, and there can be none without it. But it would become the Pride and Ignorance of Pagans only, to magnify it, as the Whole of what is necessary.

Some are able and humane men and some are low-grade individuals with the morals of a goat, the artistic integrity of a slot machine, and the manners of a floorwalker with delusions of grandeur.

As long as the decent people refuse to believe that morality must manifest itself in every sphere of human activity, including the political, they will not meet the challenge of Marxism.

As a rule of thumb I say, if Socrates, Jesus and Tolstoy wouldn't do it, don't.